National Standards CONTENT STANDARD A: As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Understandings about scientific inquiry
What this standard means: Students will be engaged in both full and partial inquiry lessons that involve questioning, investigation, gathering of evidence, coming up with a conclusion, and communicating the investigation process and results. The students will gain background knowledge and learn to use this knowledge to apply to their investigations. This standard includes:
Identifying questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.
Design and conduct a scientific investigation.
Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations.
Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.
Use mathematics in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
What students need to know (prior knowledge): Students will need to have experience making observations so that they can apply these observations to their background knowledge in order to come up with results of their findings. They must have some existing understanding of scientific ideas and information that can be applied to their inquiry of science. Common Misconceptions: Students and teachers might misinterpret this standard as the learning the scientific method. There is a logical order to this process, but there is less of a rigid structure to scientific inquiry. Life Science CONTENT STANDARD C: As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of
Reproduction and heredity
What this standard means: Reproduction takes place in all living things and is essential to the continuation of every species. The idea is that the egg and sperm unite and develop a new individual, which receives genetic information from the mother and father through the egg and sperm. The hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell’s nucleus. What students need to know (prior knowledge): Students will be exposed to organisms, ecosystems, and cells of living systems. They should have an understanding of species interactions in communities and their environments. Students should also know the basic process of sexual reproduction in humans. Common Misconceptions: Students might have misconceptions about the sperm and egg of human sexual reproduction and their role in creating offspring compared to reproduction in plants, which also involved sperm and eggs. Students will also think of heredity simply as the observable traits that are passed through generations. They will not yet make connections between the sexual reproduction process and the passing of genetic material in the sex cells.
CONTENT STANDARD A:
As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop
What this standard means:
Students will be engaged in both full and partial inquiry lessons that involve questioning, investigation, gathering of evidence, coming up with a conclusion, and communicating the investigation process and results. The students will gain background knowledge and learn to use this knowledge to apply to their investigations.
This standard includes:
What students need to know (prior knowledge):
Students will need to have experience making observations so that they can apply these observations to their background knowledge in order to come up with results of their findings. They must have some existing understanding of scientific ideas and information that can be applied to their inquiry of science.
Common Misconceptions:
Students and teachers might misinterpret this standard as the learning the scientific method. There is a logical order to this process, but there is less of a rigid structure to scientific inquiry.
Life Science CONTENT STANDARD C:
As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of
- Reproduction and heredity
What this standard means:Reproduction takes place in all living things and is essential to the continuation of every species. The idea is that the egg and sperm unite and develop a new individual, which receives genetic information from the mother and father through the egg and sperm. The hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell’s nucleus.
What students need to know (prior knowledge):
Students will be exposed to organisms, ecosystems, and cells of living systems. They should have an understanding of species interactions in communities and their environments. Students should also know the basic process of sexual reproduction in humans.
Common Misconceptions:
Students might have misconceptions about the sperm and egg of human sexual reproduction and their role in creating offspring compared to reproduction in plants, which also involved sperm and eggs. Students will also think of heredity simply as the observable traits that are passed through generations. They will not yet make connections between the sexual reproduction process and the passing of genetic material in the sex cells.